The Game Awards 2024

[one-armed dwarf]

Here's the nominees

 

 

Predicted 5 out of these 6, did not anticipate Le Monke game cause I feel it sort of fell out of people's minds a bit but there you go, shouldn't count out one of the biggest financial successes of the year like that

 

Great to see Balatro on there, I'd guess it will come down to Astro or Metaphor in the end, or Erdtree could usurp expectations as an expansion winner

 

Rest of the noms here, nothing for 1000xResist in is interesting when that's been such a highly praised game in that specific category.

https://variety.com/2024/gaming/news/game-awards-nominations-list-2024-1236213137/

[Maf]

I think it’s between Metaphor and Elden Ring 

[one-armed dwarf]

I hope Balatro wins, I feel Metaphor has stolen Rebirth's thunder at this point.

[Nag]

Elder Ring shouldn't even be there...

[mfnick]

Yea, fuck that. 
 

Come on Astro! 

[DANGERMAN]

More of a bowel movement than thunder with Rebirth wasn't it? 

[Nag]

Well I've played all of one of those games... and it certainly doesn't deserve a GotY award.

[shinymcshine]

52 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said:

I hope Balatro wins, I feel Metaphor has stolen Rebirth's thunder at this point.

 

Balatro was going to win, but they switched the cards & rules around on Awards Night......🤣

[one-armed dwarf]

If something like Shadow of Erdtree towers as an experience over every other game on this list, not saying that it does but presenting the hypothetical, would people still feel that strongly about excluding it?

 

Cause that's something I don't really get. I don't even like Elden Ring so it's never going to be for me anyway, but Phantom Liberty last year was head and heels above any first party Sony AAA cinematic narrative thing that you usually see get nominated in these categories, IMO. I find the categorical dismissal of stuff like that very arbitrary, if the quality is that good then it should get in.

 

The way I look at it, it's about iteration with stuff like that. They take something they built before and build something new on top of it. It's not a million miles away from something like Yakuza, except for the fact that those are sold as individual products. But IMO, when talking about the best gaming had to offer in the previous year this is not a meaningful enough reason to exclude it.

 

Maybe they should do what the Oscars do and open the category to more games tbh

[Metroid66]

1 hour ago, Nag said:

Well I've played all of one of those games... and it certainly doesn't deserve a GotY award.

 

I know the one you mean. 

 

That game, and I can't quite put my finger on why, has put me off the entire genre of JRPGs. I now feel they're so insufferably childish, I can't fucking bear them. Thanks SE.

 

(I'm not including 15 and 16 in that. They're great 😃)

[Maf]

I’ve only watched some of the Elden Ring DLC, and even though there are new mechanics, I think overall it’s just more Elden Ring, which is not new

 

If they’re going to go that soft on best new game what is the difference between Expansions and CoD map packs? It’s not a new game, it’s just new content for a game from a previous year

 

I think you have to draw some lines on GotY stuff otherwise what’s the point. 
 

3 minutes ago, Metroid66 said:

 

I know the one you mean. 

 

That game, and I can't quite put my finger on why, has put me off the entire genre of JRPGs. I now feel they're so insufferably childish, I can't fucking bear them. Thanks SE.

 

(I'm not including 15 and 16 in that. They're great 😃)

Play the new Dragon Quest it’s beautiful JRPG 

[mfnick]

I can’t just buy Erdtree and play it. Because it’s not an actual stand alone game. Shouldn’t count. It’s more of the existing game, not a new release. 
 

Back to the others, obviously made my pick clear. I’d be more than happy with Metaphor winning too. Haven’t played Wukong so can’t comment on that. Balatro isn’t GOTY for me at all but I can definitely see the argument for it & wouldn’t be mad if it won. Rebirth shouldn’t be in the conversation at all. Such a disappointment. 

[one-armed dwarf]

I feel the distinction there is pretty clear though in terms of scope. Map packs would fall into the 'continued support' category moreso. If they had a category that was just downloaded content it would not be meaningful cause every year you'd get a juggernaut release like Erdtree or Phantom Liberty which would just win by default, and there would be little recognition of the smaller scale ongoing support efforts which wouldn't be good either.

 

Like Baldur's Gate 3 has had the shit supported out of it the past year, but it's not going to compare to Erdtree. It's like David v Goliath at that point.

 

If it's excluded entirely, then that's just not recognising one of the most consequential releases of the year. Which is surely supposed to be the point of this, to give equal recognition to all the different types of game development out there (I realise this is more of a secondary function of the awards, which is primarily about advertising and telling the award nominees to 'wrap it up', but this is the way it should be IMO)

 

I would just expand the category to 10 games and put Silent Hill 2 and Dragon's Dogma and whatever else seems snubbed and there's little reason to complain about it.

 

At the end of the day I don't think that Erdtree would win anyway cause iteration is not as interesting to most people as something completely new, like Astrobot. But Erdtree and Phantom Liberty belong moreso in a category like that than any other IMO

[mfnick]

There’s a best ongoing game category. Put it there. 

[Maryokutai]

Disclaimer: I have played none of these games.

 

I can see the arguments pro and against Erdtree, but I'm also of the camp that it shouldn't feature in a game of the year category. It waters down the definition of it and opens the floodgates for all kinds of stuff. Scope is not a clear enough differentiator IMO, but not being playable without a base game that was released prior is. I get that it might then not receive as much recognition, but we're talking about one show here and I remember the entire internet being all in on Erdtree when it came out – not to mention the base game winning the award in the year of its release. I don't think we need to bend the rules just to give it another round of exposure here. With Cyberpunk I could have seen it as part of its redemption arc, but I would have had the same opinion about the category wording losing its meaning.

 

As for those picks, I'd imagine it boils down to Erdtree, Metaphor or Rebirth. As good as they supposedly are, I just can't really imagine Astro or Balatro winning here. And Wukong I don't quite get the fuzz anyway – again, haven't played it, but it looks like a fun, middle-of-the-road PS2-type experience, but nothing to put on stage there (it's also in the game direction category for some reason). 

Would have loved to see Silent Hill there to be honest, wonder if Keighley vetoed that out to stay friends with Kojima.

[Nag]

11 hours ago, Maryokutai said:

Would have loved to see Silent Hill

 

Tbf it probably deserves it more than at least a couple on that list.

[one-armed dwarf]

Whatever about Rebirth, Balatro is such a slam dunk of a concept that it has to be on there. 

[Maryokutai]

Looking over the entire list, the only game I played is Unicorn Overlord (and Zau, but that's in the accessibility group). Rooting for that to win, not sure how good its competition in the strategy category is though.

 

Outside of the awards I hope we finally get to see Monolith's Wonder Woman game. That has been a long time coming, they recently updated their homepage – seems like a good time to get ready for a release next year.

 

I wonder if we're getting any big new announcements here though, as I get the feeling we're getting to a point where development cycles can't catch up with the cadence of these shows anymore.

[Nag]

I'm expecting something from Capcom... be that Resident Evil 9 which has been rumoured to be shown somewhere for ages now or a Dragon's Dogma 2 expansion... that's apparently been data mined again with different stuff being found.

 

Other than that I'm not sure what I'm hoping for...

[Maf]

I know it’s unlikely but I think they’ll show some Death Stranding 2